This document serves as a draft version 1.1 of the Final
Executive Briefing on WSIS Forum 2010. Additions to this
report will be made as and when submissions are received
from session organizers and focal points.

Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society
Organized by UNESCO/ITU

Summary

In the first part of the
thematic workshop, Kenneth Deer, from the International
Indigenous ICT Taskforce, gave a short overview of the
development of Indigenous Peoples' issues in light of the
WSIS outcomes and the impact of the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the WSIS agenda. Kenneth
participated in the panel via skype and conference call,
which allowed an important Indigenous voice to be heard.
Following Kenneth Deer's overview, several panelists shared
their experiences in the development of ICT projects for and
with Indigenous Peoples. Dev Kumar, Sub-Editor of The
Kathmandu Post, provided an indigenous view of struggles and
pathways in developing indigenous media in Nepal. Kamal Naim,
IT Officer and Head of Electronic Publishing and the IT Unit
in the Information Services Section of UN-HABITAT/Nairobi,
provided an overview of the use of ICTs for social and
economic development. This allowed for further reflection on
how such ICTs could possibly target indigenous communities
particularly. Teanau Tuiono from the Local and Indigenous
Knowledge Section within the Science Sector of UNESCO
presented a selection of UNESCO initiated ICT projects that
support Indigenous Knowledge (Climate Frontlines, The Canoe
is the People). Sasha Rubel from UNESCO's Culture Sector
provided an overview of a project carried out by the Culture
and Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO in
partnership with indigenous filmmakers and media companies
entitled ICT4ID (ICTs for Intercultural Dialogue), with a
particular focus on the video/film industry as it relates to
Indigenous Peoples' self-determined development and
self-representation. Roxanne Widmer-Iliescu, ITU's youth
programme officer and focal point for assistance to
indigenous peoples, provided an overview of the main
achievements of the ITU Development Bureau's initiatives
dedicated to the specific ICT needs of indigenous peoples
based on tradition and preservation of their cultural
values.

In the second half of
the thematic workshop dedicated to discussion and exchange
between the panelists and participants, ideas were shared
regarding possible ways of advancing the WSIS commitments as
they relate to Indigenous Peoples. Several central points
were raised. An emphasis was placed on the need to focus on
capacity building between and within indigenous communities
based on already existing capacities in the communities. The
need to promote a kind of development based on consultation
and dialogue with particular reference to ICTs within
indigenous communities was also stressed. Questions
participants raised included how ICT's could be used
specifically for wealth generation and economic development
in indigenous communities, what the real outcome of the use
of ICT's for development is, and the need to differentiate
between the notion of "indigenous peoples" and the need for
"local content" in debates regarding the information
society. Another question included UNESCO's concrete
involvement in C8 and C9 of the WSIS agenda, and possible
ways forward regarding the use and innovative development of
ICT's within Indigenous communities despite financial
constraints.

On behalf of UNESCO's
Assistant Director-General for Communication and
Information, Mr Cédric Wachholz opened and moderated this
session, highlightening UNESCO's particular commitment to
promoting women's empowerment and gender equality. Direct
links to Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing
and to the WSIS outcome documents were established as a
guiding framework for the session.

During the session, Ms
Eva Fabry Director of the European Centre for Women and
Technology, Chair of the Global Women and Technology Network
(Drammen, Norway) spoke about "Women and Technology in the
Digital Age - global multi-stakeholder collaboration for the
future. She was followed by Ms Christine Verschuur, Senior
Lecturer, Responsible of the Gender and Development
Programme of the Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies (Geneva, Switzerland), who presented an
E-learning programme on gender and development. Ms Doris
Olaya, Statistician, Market Information and Statistics
Division, International Telecommunication Union, (Geneva,
Switzerland) shared findings from gender disaggregated ICT
statistics. Ms Jelena Godjevac, President and CEO of the
Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute (Meyrin,
Switzerland), opened with the provocative statement: "If you
want to change the world, become an entrepreneur" and closed
by inviting participants to explore the freely accessible,
serious games her company developed.

Participants engaged in
lively discussions and continued to raise questions on the
findings presented. Some participants also presented their
own, ongoing gender and ICT projects.

In the concluding
remarks, UNESCO stressed that achieving gender equality in
our everyday life should no longer be an objective but a
commitment. Women and men need to pull forces together to
break the ancient barriers of belief that they, through
their different roles, have an unequal stand in society. If
women and men can work closer as allies, we should be
optimistic that gender equality will one day be achieved in
all areas of life, including in the ICTs. With the help of
sessions like this one, more attention will be drawn to the
important work undertaken by those who are engaged in
women's rights, women's empowerment and gender equality in
ICTs.

We are currently
experiencing a revolution in ICT infrastructure, with a
movement towards fixed infrastructure in the form of
Broadband, and a proliferation of mobile e-services. The
advancement of ICT technology is creating a knowledge based
society, and with it comes certain rights and
responsibilities which have to be upheld. Traditional
theories on the protection of human rights demand that
states adopt a very neutral role in this process, although
more modern approaches now emphasize the multi-faceted
nature of global human rights protection, and the potential
(even need) for state participation.

Current internet rights
charters are predominantly based on the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), although the changing
nature of ICT development means that any such charters are
simply works in progress, which must be adjusted to
accommodate technology advancements. In general, rights
pertaining to internet use tend to concentrate on the
following principals:

As already mentioned,
these principals are derived mainly from the UNHR, and are
accounted for in the APC charter for internet rights. There
is however no universal declaration imposing the protection
of these (or other) internet rights, and new charters are
constantly being formulated. Furthermore, contradictions
between different rights can sometimes become an issue, when
for example, the need to block certain sites (such as those
eliciting child pornography) breaches other rights (such as
the right to freedom of expression). Such contradictions
make the enforcement of internet rights all the more
difficult. Despite these difficulties, there are several
initiatives underway to ensure the enforcement of internet
rights. 'Kubatan.net' is currently active in Zimbabwe and is
tasked with securing web users privacy from the repressive
government institutions which control the country. Other
initiatives include 'EroTICs', which filters online content
in order to protect young users, and 'Take Back the Tech',
which is reviews the roles that ICT's can play in combating
violence against women.

The right to access the
internet is also closely related to the right to
communicate, which is a fundamental human need. The
intrinsic value to this right is clearly apparent (humans
crave contact with others), but communication also plays a
major role in society building. Protection (in the form of
early warning systems for example), providing access to
information, knowledge sharing, development and value
formation are all enhanced by increased and uncensored
communication. Protecting this right is therefore of
instrumental importance in ensuring the evolution of a
humane, considerate society free from war and other
undesirables.

On 12-13 May, the
concept and prototypes of the Matrix of ICT Solutions for
Advancing the MDGs and of the Computer-aided Strategic
Planner were presented to the participants of the WSIS Forum
which is the principal annual gathering of key stakeholders
involved in the follow-up to the World Summit on Information
Society. The archived webcast of the sessions can be
accessed at the following web address:
https://www.itu.int/ibs/WSIS/201005forum/index.html.

Both sessions were well
attended by representatives of governments, UN agencies,
private sector and civil society and the outcome was both
positive and constructive. The overall reaction of the
attendees was unequivocally positive. No one questioned the
utility and value of the proposed set of ICT4MDGs tools.
Representatives of several developing country governments
were very encouraged by a presentation and endorsement from
the Minister of ICT of Macedonia who shared his positive
experience with the current prototype of the Strategic
Planner. Government representatives expressed their urgent
interest in testing the Planner and contributing to its
further development.

The comments and
suggestions of the participants could be grouped as follows:

Institutional
concerns: it was stressed by two participants, in
particular by ITU, that the proposed tool should
complement rather than duplicate existing knowledge
repositories and tools, and should contain data and
statistics consistent with agreed standards.

Quality assurance:
several participants highlighted the need to develop
effective vetting mechanisms for ensuring the
credibility, consistency and comprehensiveness of
knowledge presented in the Matrix and used as primary
data for the Planner. The need to ensure multilingualism
of the Portal and vendor neutrality as regards
presentation of commercially available tools was also
mentioned.

Substantive areas
to be covered: several participants proposed that in
addition to functionalities present in the current
prototypes of the Matrix and the Planner, the Portal
should also address such needs as: providing a tutorial
on strategic ICT planning; presenting methodologies and
tools for development of strategies for ICT in sectors
(education, health, etc.) to assist ICT ministries in
their interaction with sectoral partners; monitoring
progress in introducing ICT in development activities;
and assessing the development impact of ICT. The latter
was thought to be especially necessary for ensuring
cooperation of government entities (such as finance
ministries, for example) which currently quite often
remain skeptical about ICT4D.

These and other very
constructive and useful comments and suggestions are
currently being analyzed by the teams developing the Portal
with a view to fully incorporate them in the forthcoming
updated versions of the Portal.

While this iterative
process of consultations, feedback and updating will
continue enabling the further development of the Portal, the
enthusiastic response to this initiative, particularly from
developing countries and the private sector representatives
participating in the open consultations at the WSIS Forum,
have clearly demonstrated both the value-added of and the
urgent need for such a powerful web-based tool with a
potential global and game-changing impact on the advancement
of MDGs in the next five years.